Born March 10, 1949 in Duncan, British Columbia, Canada.

1960 moved to San Jose, California. Lived in Santa Cruz from 1972 to 1978 then moved to Seattle, where he still lives by Lake Washington (North Matthews Beach) with his loving wife, Kathleen Russell.

Larry has always been very active with various creative projects. From making flower pots, macrame', photography, silk screening, metal sculpture, music recording, graphic design, to oil painting, he has always enjoyed exploring the world of art and creation of it. Here is a summary his life so far.

The idea and interest in oil painting came in 1978 (but only in my mind) after finding a bunch of oil paints my wife had in college. I thought then, that some day when I was old, I'd use them. Then in the summer of 2001 Kathleen and I took a painting class and I am now using those very paints. I was much inspired by Ronald Russell and the artist, Earl Daniels, who was a master of "Seascapes / Marines" oil paintings. What you see is what I've done so far.

My wife Kathleen is just the best, words can not describe the love I have for her. She has helped me through each day by always providing me with an 24 hr available listening ear and by having natural knack for being a wonderful advice giver (only when asked) and has been the very best companion you could ever ask for.

I have been blessed with fantastic family. My own parents (Cliff & Dorothy) as well as my wife's parents, (Ronald & Ellen Russell) have both been a major inspiration to my life.

Current History ...

Kathleen and I publish books and posters. Our publishing company is called, Walrus Productions.

The name originated from each of our last names, Wall & Russell and started as a business in 1979. We keep busy shipping books and posters each day to stores nationwide. Our first book "The Road to Success is Always Under Construction" is originated from a poster we designed in 1988. We have sold about 465,000 books to over well over 3,000 different stores. In 1992 Larry designed a "Guitar Chords" poster and it has sold over 3 million copies. In 2001 Larry designed the "Piano Chords" poster. Walrus Productions supplies music stores nation-wide both the instructional guitar and piano poster chord charts .

The complete book title list, that we have published, are as follows;

# 1 The Road to Success
# 2 Achieve Your Dreams
# 3 Money, Now you have it, Now you don't
# 4 How Does Your Garden Grow?
# 5 Motherhood is not for Wimps
# 6 Kitty Litterature
# 7 A View from the Litter Box
# 8 Does Your Computer Byte?
# 9 Doggie Tales Fun Puns
#10 Golfing for the Emotionally Impaired
#11 HOGWASH!

If you would like any more information about Walrus Productions, please visit our web site http://www.walrusproductions.com/

Past History ...

I lived on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada from 1949 to 1960 in the town of Duncan, where I was born. I lived in a large country house with five acres of land that fronted a lake with an island in the middle that was a bird sanctuary. There was no shortage of activities and mischief for me as a kid.

Then in 1960 we moved to beautiful warm & sunny San Jose, California. What a time to grow up. I had fantastic experiences surfing, playing lead guitar in a rock band, boating, skiing, fishing, duck and pheasant hunting, hiking and cruisin' in my many different cool cars. I went to many of the early concerts at the Filmore Audutorium, in San Fransico, and got to see lots of famous rock groups up close. I made many trips to Lake Tahoe skiing. (one day we went snow skiing at Dodge Ridge in the morning and surfing in Santa Cruz that evening) I really have so many terrific tales of my time growing up in San Jose and later on in Santa Cruz, that if told here ... I might get arrested. I have written a autobiography, "Random Acts of Mischief"... so you can read all about it.

I have worked at numerous jobs, but finally realized I was happier working for myself.
The jobs and work I had growing up are as follows:

In 1960 I started with an early morning paper route (The Mercury-News) when I was only eleven years old and did that for five years. (I learned at a very young age the importance of knowing who and where your customer is although I didn't know that at the time). I worked at McDonald's (making french fries), then a real cool "India Imports" store (in the stockroom), "on the line" at General Motors (sanding cars), at a Japanese landscape company(laying sod lawns & sprinklers), at two diffent gas stations (pumping gas and doing minor tune-up and oil changes), and was proud to have worked at the Headquarters of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. This beautiful complex, established in 1927 in San Jose, California, houses several Egyptian-style buildings on a five-acre, park-like setting featuring broad lawns, palm trees, rose gardens, and exotic plants from around the world. (my job was in the building maintenance dept.) http://www.rosicrucian.org . My first paintings were in an auto body shop (painting cars), I've also painted lots of houses, worked for a roofing company (hot tar roofs) and even was an ice-cream-man truck driver (although, I ate all my profits). In 1963-1966 I played lead guitar in a rockin' roll surf band called the Citations (but that wasn't really a job as it was too much fun).

In 1970 I put in two semesters at San Jose City College majoring in photography and received the best grade in class. I then joined the Canadian Navy as a photographer. The jobs I had in the navy, (besides taking pictures of planes, buildings and people) were shining shoes, marching around the parade ground and standing at attention. I was stationed at Camp Borden, north of Toronto, Canada and after10 months of training I was able to quit and return to Santa Cruz.

In 1972 my father helped me start up a flower pot business. They were made from crushed coral (limestone) and white portland cement. I invented a multi-colored version that sold quite well. The flower pots were called "Coral Planters" and our pot factory had three five hour shifts of people each day turning out thousands of them. I produced several TV and radio commercials for the product line. Our company was the very first to introduce macrame' plant hangers to the major chain stores. We had, at one time, 120 families making them . (plants & hangers were very popular in the early '70's). In 1978 I made and sold what might have been the world's largest macrame' hanger, for the very cheap price of $175.00, to the Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz. Macrame' was popular and I designed and sold lots of different "Macrame' Kits" which provided the instructions and material (beads and jute string). By the end of the 70's the public's interest in house plants seemed to vanish and macrame' really got hurt by all the imports flooding the market. I also did not know all there was to know about business (alas ... you never do) and made some terrible mistakes with costs of goods and inventory management. That experience helped me like no other.

I first met my wife, Kathleen, in Feb. 1977 at the San Francisco Gift Show, where both of us were exhibiting our own products. My booth had macrame hangers and flower pots and she had posters of Farrah Fawcett, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman and Starsky & Hutch. She lived in Seattle and we both commuted back and forth until we were married June 10, 1978. Kathleen helped me design a line of novelty "Funny Gifts" and I made the local TV news in Seattle with it. One item was called a "Genuine Dirty Gift" which was a bag filled with cigarette butts and trash. Another was called a "Genuine Corny Gift" which was of course popcorn. Another was called, "Cut your Bills in Half" which had a bag with plastic scissors in it. This is all true and my company name changed from "Hot Knots" to "The False Need Company" to "Easy Money" then finally in 1979 to "Walrus Productions" when I started making metal sculpture artwork and exhibited in craft shows at malls and street fairs. I designed, built and sold many unique metal art pieces. It was when Mount St. Helens exploded May 18th, 1980 that my metal sculpture adventure ended and a new one began, selling posters. My wife's company was quick to have a volcano poster printed 3 days after the blast and the company hired me to sell them. It was then I started as a poster salesman where I developed a rack inventory/ordering/system to better service the stores that allowed us to contol what each store sold. It was that innovation that allowed the poster business grow into the business it is today. Check out the poster racks in any K-mart, Toys R Us or Walmart, our finger prints are still there. Selling popular posters was really fun as you might imagine. We distibuted many different popular posters and sold millions of black light posters in Europe. I had to watch MTV so I could be up on what was hot at the time. I traveled to Europe twice visiting customers in Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. We sold our interest in the company, American Arts & Graphics, to Kathleen's brother in 1985.

1986 Became a Real Estate Agent and listed & sold over 40 homes in the next four years and bought a few for myself too as fixer-upper rentals.

1988 Designed the poster called, "The Road To Success is Always Under Construction". It is a collection of short, humorous quotations designed to make you think, chuckle, self-motivate and lift your spirits. The poster's message helps remind us what is necessary to be happy and succeed! http://www.walrusproductions.com/lgsuccessposter.html This poster is still a best seller. I typed it on a typewriter at the real estate office while doing floor time at the front desk.

1992 Designed a poster called "Guitar Chords" http://www.walrusproductions.com/guitarchords.html and wow, what a huge seller that has been. Over 3 million copies have been sold, I must have helped a lot of people play the guitar better.

1992 The same year, Kathleen and I wrote the book "The Road To Success is Always Under Construction" http://www.walrusproductions.com/success.html after Kathleen suggested that the "Success" poster could be a good book. Since then we have published eleven books and continue to look for ideas for new books and posters.

1996 Started our web site http://www.walrusproductions.com and started learning web site design. This is a full time job for those that don't know. I still have a lot of fun trying to figure out the internet.

1999 Helped Kathleen create her line of "Butterfly Artwork" http://www.walrusproductions.com/butterfly.html and exposed her artistic talent.

1999 Created the poster "Achieve Your Dreams" http://www.walrusproductions.com/lgdreamsposter.html
It too is a collection of short, humorous quotations designed to make you think, chuckle, self-motivate and lift your spirits. The poster's message helps remind us what is necessary to be happy and succeed!

2001 Designed the Piano Chords poster http://www.walrusproductions.com/pianochords.html

2001 Designed these two web sites: CHECK THEM OUT!
"Craft Show Festivals" http://www.craftshowfestivals.com
"Robert Staniford's Metal Sculpture" http://www.craftshowfestivals.com/metalsculpture.html
"Select Gourmet Foods" http://www.selectgourmetfoods.com

2003 Got Sam Ash Music and Guitar Center Stores accounts. (Increased our business a lot)
Installed 3 LIVE web cams. To spy on me at work, here is the SECRET web address http://walrusproductions.com/webcamoffice.html
Got a new car (1985 Ford station wagon). Kathleen and I built a chicken coop and got 3 chickens. Went on the trip to Saskatchewan with my Dad and nephew Dan for a family reunion. Made a DVD Movie for The Prospect Hotel as well as other DVD's for friends. Had the best Seattle summer weather in history and celebrated our 25th year wedding anniversary in Victoria.

Finished 8 new paintings!

2004 September we came out with Mini Chord Charts. 8 1/2" X 11" Laminated versions of our popular chords posters.
http://www.walrusproductions.com/guitarchords.html and http://www.walrusproductions.com/pianochords.html

2005 New Product: "Mandolin Chords" chart. The Guitar and Piano Chords showed up on the Gilmore Girls TV show in two different episodes.

2006 On January 4th had to call 911 for an irregular heart beat. Got the electric paddles in the emergancy room. Left the next morning and went to Zihuantanejo, Mexico and Costa Rica for 2 weeks. Warner Bros. called to get permission to use our Road To Success poster in the new TV show called "The Evidence". Also TV show Wife Swap called to use Guitar poster. Went to Hawaii in March. SOLD ANOTHER PAINTING. Added 3 more new products (lamimated chord charts) BASS, BANJO and UKULELE.Also released a new version of the poster, "Don't Tell Me What Kind of a Day To Have.
BASS http://www.walrusproductions.com/basschordsmini.html
BANJO http://www.walrusproductions.com/banjochordsmini.html
UKULELE http://www.walrusproductions.com/ukulelechordsmini.html
DON'T TELL ME (POSTER) http://www.walrusproductions.com/donttellme.html

2007 Sold 15 more oil paintings. Bought a nice 1931 Model A Ford.

Published autobiography book, "Random Acts of Mischief"

2008 Sold 3 ocean wave painting to Columbia Pictures production of the movie "Seven Pounds" starring Will Smith.
Sold 2 more paintings (Big Wave and Water Lilies) July -Sold one of my best paintings called "Tropical Moon."

Made website fro Kathleen's artwork

http://www.fromkath.com

2009

Sold many more paintings. Actually 34 have been sold to date. (July 2009)

You can see all the paintings I have sold on this webpage: http://www.walrusproductions.com/zpaintingsold.html

Helped create the poster
Symptoms of Inner Peace
By Saskia Davis

2010

STILL HAVING FUN PAINTING!

to sum up ...

I try to recognize and appreciate the simple fact that THE TRUE ROAD TO SUCCESS ... really is ...
"Always Under Construction" and that one has to be prepared to learn something new each day.

Larry Wall